Brick, and wall construction



July 29 1924. 1,503,327

G.E.LUCE

BRICKMAND WALL CONSTRUCTION Filed' June '7. 1920 Wbgg 7 j @Mfg PatentedJuly 29, 1924. I

sraras maar? BRICK, AND WALL CONSTRCTION.

Application led June 7,

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, GRAFTON E. LUCE, a

citizen of the United States,'and resident of -wall section at one face,together with one or more hollow .sections and therefore to combine asolid and hollow building unit.

. The advantages of such a solid and hollow unit are numerous and thewall structure built thereby alsopossesses important' features andadvantages. My building unit with a solid mass, preferably for the eX-terior wall face, enables the structure and each brick or unit in thestructure, to carry a great load or compressive strain, i. e., a loadsubstantially equivalent to that which solid brick will bear. The hollowspace, or hollow spaces, also provide the insulation incident to hollowbrick, and' furthermore enable a very great saving in brick material, inweight, in transportation costs and inihandling. Furthermore, theconstruction of such a building unit enables it to be adapt` ed foraso-called twin wall structure by having the solid portion as one wallsection and the hollow portion or one hollow portion as the other wallsection. The combination, therefore, of these two elements, i. e., solidwall section and a. hollow section, in a building unit, is, I believe, adistinct -novelty in this art and I therefore wish to claim the samebroadly.

A further important featureincident to the present invention is theprovision of a plurality of internal vair spaces in the wall structure.'Such air spaces are preferably made by utilizing one or more openchannels centrally' of the brick or approximately in the center of thebrick, which channels will interrupt the horizontal mortar course,

thereby Asaving mortar in the wall, prevent- 1920.` Serial No. 387,066.

ing moisture from seeping across from face to face of the wall, andeliminating weight, saving material, etc. Preferably I so arrange thesechannels in form so as to constitute a central hand-hold for the brick,this constituting a further feature of the invention. IVhile I am awarethat the provision of a hand-hold for handling building units is now inuse, yet the arrangement of such a hand-hold, which is positionedsymmetrically with regard to the center of gravity of the brick, andeccentric with regard to the area, is a distinct novelty, and is animportant feature in my present invention. This enables a building .unitwith a solid wall section and a hollow wall section, to

nevertheless be handled in; balanced suspension by the mason, because ofhaving the hand-hold concentric with the center of gravity. Thiseccentric but balanced handhold feature I desire to claim broadly,either in a combined solid and hollow sectioned build-ing unit, orotherwise. v

Thile my improved building unit can be and preferably is of a sizeadapted for interlocking with and building, interchangeably, with commonbrick-sized building units and common brick, the unit can be of anysuitable size or dimensions. Furthermore, the wall structure built ofsuch building units `presents a solid, lire-resisting, loadbearing,rigid wall face having for the exterior face a solid and hollow wallstructure, with central air spaces, or air channels, and hollow wallsection on the interior, which can he utilized to receive plasterdirectly. I-Ieretofore I believe it4 has been necessary to utilize ahollow wall building unit for a backing and a solid brick unit for thefacing, in order to build a wall structure of equivalent strength,thickness and advantageous features, to that aiforded by 'my presentinvention.

If desired'my build-ing unit can be formed with moisture interlockingand mortar receiving recesses in either or both recesses, and in eithertop or bottom faces, but preferably I employ a mortar retaining and1nterlocking pair of lugs substantially opposite the recessed channelsfor the hand-hold. These lugs affording a positive molsturecheck andinterlock, also enable me to conserve, to a high degree, the amount ofmortar ',The block 1 comprises a saves the mortar from overiiowing orrunning into the handehold recesses, thus giving a larger .air space inthe center of the ,wall and greater moistureproofness and heat and coldinsulation.

These buildingv units are formed in the usual brick-making die machines,by continuous process, wire cut in the same manner as common brick,dried and burned, and

may be formed either in duplexor single column.

Referring to the drawings, illustrating preferred embodiments of myinvention,

Fig. 1 is 'a perspective view showing a fragment of a wall structure,built of my novel Jform of building unit, illustrating the combinedsolid and hollow wall sections and also showing the same with mortarinterlocking grooves or recesses; f

Fig. 2 is a corresponding fragmentary view of a Wall structureillustrating my preferred form with mortar retaining and interlockinglugs.

Referring to the drawings, wherein I have illustrated a building unit ofsubstantially equivalent exterior Adimensions to common brick andadapted for building an eight inch wall and therefore beingapproximately eight inches in length, and two'and a quarter inches inhei ht, the unit shown at the top of the wall ragment in Fig. 1,constitutes the simplest form. This form, designated generally at l, maybe used with the modied forms designated at 2 and 3, Fig. 1, having themortar interlock, lor with the form designated 4 Fig. 2, in the samewall. air oftwin wall sections 5 and 6, the sectlon 5 being solid i andintended as an exterior face of the wall and the section 6 having alongitudinal hollow recess 7 and intended for the interior face of thewall. These two wall sections are united by a central portion, thelatter consisting in a base plate or bottom portion 8, and the hand-holdor central portion 9, the latter preferably being formed withoverhanging ed es or rims 10, 10, to facilitate the hand-ho d, and withthe central portion spaced from the wall sections forming open channels11, 11.- I prefer also to have the central portion cored or formedhollow as shown at 12, thus affording a plurality ofhorizontal airspaces 7 and 12 in the block, and a further additional plurality of airspaces 11, 11, in the completed Wall, as well as the space over thecentral section 9, whichpreferably--is left free of mortar, as indicatedat 15.

My novel form of combined hollow and 4solid brick as just describedaords a building unit with the advantages of solid, loadcarrying andfire-resisting face in one wall section, together with air insulation atthe center and inner wall sections. Because of the solid wall section 5being of greater weight than the hollow wall section 6, I prefer to formthe central handhold portion 9 eccentric with regard to the surface ofthe brick, but in balanced relation with the center of gravity, so thatthe mason will find no diiiiculty in handling the same. In actualpractice I find that the solid wall section 5, if of two inches inthickness, affords proper strength for this part of the wall andsuitable iire-resisting qualities. The central section or air space 12,may be three inches in length with the handhold'9, approximately twoinches, thus affording a good rm handliold and. a seat for the palm ofthe hand when the mason is settling or positioning the unit onto themortar courses. This allows the wall section 6 to have the center airspace 7 of fully two inches in greatest area and also permits a minimumof one-half inch in thickness for the webs of the walls of the bricksurrounding the central air space 12 and the inner space 7. Such a unitcan be made easily in the continuous process at present in using inmaking both brick and hollow tile, will dry quickly and burn evenly to avitriication.

The form of brick also sho-wn in Fig. 1, and designated as 2, has thesolid wall section 20 and the top of the wall section 21, formed withmortar receiving grooves or recesses 22u The block shown at 3 has thewall sections 25 and 26 provided at both top and bottom with mortarreceiving and interlocking grooves 27, 27. These forms can be usedinterchangeable or individually as desired.

Various methods of laying up the mortar courses may be employed. Asillustrated in Fig. 1, and between the blocks'l and 2, the horizontalmortar course 30, 31, at the solid or front wall sections and hollowinner wall sections, respectively, are laid to simply cover the portionsof the block in vertlcal alinement, leaving the hand-hold recesses 11,11, free and as open air spaces, in addition to the air spaces 15 abovethe central handhold section 9. The mortar course v33 and 34, isillustrated as an instance of where the surplus or overiowing mass ofmortar, if any, will expand into the hand-hold recesses 11,11, asindicated at 35, 35, and still leaving the central air space 15 open andfree. This eectually interrupts the horizontal mortar course, preventing'moisture from seeping through, providing a pocket for the excess formedsolid and hollow respectively, with`4 its central hand-hold portion 42also in substantially theV same contour, position and spacing as thoseof the blocks already shown and described, leaving the same hand-holdchannels 43, 43. On this block, however, I have added a positive mortarand moisture lug or interlock 44, a pair of these lugs being preferablyemployed inl alinement to register with a portion of the open handholdchannels 43. In laying up the Wall structure with this form of my block,the horizontal mortar course 45, which the niason will lay as a strip,layer or ribbon of mortar on the top-faces of the wall sections, isretained therein by the lugs 44, which interlock a sufficient amountwith the channel recesses 43 to practically compress the mortar on thewall sections and retain the same therein, preventing it from flowingdownwardly into the recesses, thus still further conserving mortar andaffording a rigid, firm, positive interlock. The mortar courseillustrated at 46 shows where a surplus of mortar, if extended to ll inthe hand-hold recesses or channels 43, as indicated at 50,

afford a further mortar supporting mass for` load-carrying between 'thesuper-imposed courses of brick, in which the lugs 44 also constitutemortar compressing and interlocking elements.

I consider that these mortar retaining lugs may be of advantage andespecially in the manufacturing of this type of channel brick, and alsoas shown in laying up the mortar course 44, being efiectually a mort-arretaining check and interlocking means as well as a moisture deflectingelement, leaving any moisture which might possibly drive through theouter mortar course to accumulate in the open channel or recess 43.-'

All the foregoing forms can be used interchangeably with each other orwith common brick, and will interlock therewith, when made of bricksize, as is preferable, at corners, Windows, piers and the like.

My invention is further described and defined in the form of claims asfollows:

1. A building unit ,of the kind described, comprising a solid wallsection, and a hollow wall section, and having a portion of the blockdistinct from v the Wall sections, arranged in balanced relation for ahand-hold.

2. A building unit of the kind described, having a solid wall section atone face, ahollow wall section at the opposite face, and an intermediatesection defined by open channels, spacing the `intermediate section fromthe wall sections, said intermediate section being positionedeccentrically with regard to the surface area of the unit, and adaptedfor the purpose of a balanced hand-hold.

3. A building unit of the kind described, having a solid Wall section atone face, a hollow wall section at the opposite face, and anintermediate section dened by open channels and comprising a hand-hold,spacing the intermediate section from the wall sections, saidintermediate section being positioned eccentrically with regard to thesurface area of the unit, and one wall section and the intermediatesection being cored for lightness.

4. A building unit eccentrically Weighted and having a handheldpositioned eccentrically with regard to thevunit, butl directly over itscenter of gravity.

5. A wall comprising horizontal courses of brick-like units, each unitcomposed of a plurality of sections, one of ysaid sections, defining theexternal face of the wall, being solid, and the innermost section,defining the interior face of the Wall, being cored for lightness;

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

GRAFTON E. LUCE.

